The Garland Oak

In
the January issue of The Alumnus we published the picture of a giant oak over
the simple title, "Garland Oak on West Campus," and made no further
remarks thereupon. Since then many parties have called our attention to the
fact that the oak in question is no longer in existence, and the picture therefore
does not represent the campus as it is. Our antiquary has made for us now an
exhaustive investigation into the entire history of the Garland oak, and we
give here some of his findings in a much abbreviated form.

It is true that the oak no longer stands. It was put out of existence in 1911
by Cap Alley and his cohorts, and the remains piled up in state along with the
bones of many another outworn hero just back of Kissam Hall. The picture itself
shows that the Garland oak had developed a very alarming tilt towards the west;
it does not show what was also a fact, that a decay of many years standing had
almost eaten out the base of it; and the two considerations were sufficient
to convince any reasonable observer that the ancient tree was likely to go over
in the course of any strong wind and was a menace to innocent passersby.

History centered about the Garland oak to a degree not equalled in the case
of any other tree on the campus. The name itself was applied to the tree from
the fact that it stood just north of Chancellor Garland's house, now the home
of Dr. Stevenson and the first of the residences on the road from West End through
to the tennis courts after passing Kissam Hall. The old Chancellor set particular
store by the oak which guarded the approach to his home. He placed boxes in
it for the benefit of the squirrels, and he would not allow the birds which
sang in it to be disturbed.

The
Garland oak stood at the top of the hill on which the whole campus takes its
commanding situation, and its position was indeed so conspicuous that various
surveys were made from it as a starting point for the land round about. Forty
years ago a road led westwards from Broad Street right through the campus towards
the Garland oak. The road is still there, in a considerably improved state,
but the oak which was once such a landmark no longer stands.

The oak figured prominently in deeds of conveyance, after the primitive fashion
of locating real estate so much favored in Tennessee and Kentucky history. Most
famous is a deed that is still preserved among the archives of the University,
though the paper is yellow with age and brittle from the fire of 1905 through
which it passed. The deed on the outside bears this inscription:

The paper itself goes on to define "certain real estate," which had
been made over to said H. N. McTyeire as Trustee for Central University and
is herein conveyed to Vanderbilt University which has now succeeded said Central
University; and the boundary lines are given with reference to a certain "overcup
oak," which we can easily reckon from the description to have been identical
with the tree that was to be known finally as the Garland Oak.